


Just Another (Awful) Day

by avianscribe



Series: Collection of Prompts [12]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Child Abandonment, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Prompto has good friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:20:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27234874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avianscribe/pseuds/avianscribe
Summary: Prompto's birthday is just like any other day -- until it isn't.
Relationships: Gladiolus Amicitia & Prompto Argentum & Noctis Lucis Caelum & Ignis Scientia
Series: Collection of Prompts [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1432558
Comments: 22
Kudos: 146
Collections: FFXV Book Club Monthly Sprint Prompts





	Just Another (Awful) Day

**Author's Note:**

> Written as part of a discord server sprint event on Prompto's birthday! It wasn't ready to post on the Big Day, but it is now, so... belated Happy Birthday, Prompto!
> 
> (Real Life has really gotten in the way of my creativity. I've got so many stalled WIPs, but this one kind of wrote itself -- and I'm hoping it'll help me get my writing mojo back! XD I guess we'll see...!)

Having to go to school on his birthday was nothing new for Prompto. 

It was pretty much guaranteed to happen in five years out of seven.  _ Maybe  _ five of seven. There was a leap year in there now and then, which just gummed up his calculations, but pretty much, not counting leap year, he was guaranteed to-- 

Oh, what did it matter. It was his birthday, and he had to go to school anyway, and it sucked. 

But his parents had promised? tentatively? that they’d be headed back to town in time to celebrate with him in person, for real. It had been a few years since they’d been able to do that. He’d been a lot more excited to open his presents then, too; he was pretty much always guaranteed to have a cake and something to play with for a while. He wasn’t sure he could count on that this time, but he had a little hope, anyway. 

It didn’t make school suck any less. 

Noctis texted at the beginning of the day that he had Things To Do, so he wouldn’t be there. No “happy birthday”, but hey… he was the Crown Prince, and this was Prompto’s first birthday since they’d become friends, and he hadn’t really gone out of his way to point it out; he’d just, maybe, mentioned it once. So he couldn’t fault Noctis for not remembering. He was a busy guy and a new friend’s birthday was a little thing. 

Prompto completely bombed the math test in second period, but at least it was over. He forgot an assignment in World Geography, but it wasn’t very many points, so he probably wouldn’t fail. He maybe set a stove unit on fire in Home Ec, but no one could for sure pin it on him, and he’d deny it till his dying day. 

It wasn’t a surprise, really, when Prompto came home to an empty house. Again.

It being his birthday didn’t really figure in the calculations. His parents hadn’t made it back, even though they’d promised. He checked the home phone on the off chance they’d left a message — sometimes they did that, even though he had his own phone and surely they could just call that. They would call the home phone, because then they wouldn’t actually have to talk to  _ him. _

Maybe  _ actually talking to him _ would make them feel guilty. 

Prompto dropped his satchel by the front door (no actual school work for him TODAY, no chance) and slipped his shoes off. Then he meandered his way to his bedroom and stripped off his uniform. He left it in a puddle at the foot of his bed (no way was he bothering with hanging it up when it didn’t really matter, no way) and pulled on his most comfortable, softest sweats and cat ear hoodie. 

He thought about what he wanted to do now. Noctis had some Royal Thing going on; he’d already let Prompto know he wasn’t available for any King’s Knight or Justice Monster marathons after school. Prompto hadn’t asked for any explanations. It was just how things were. But it also meant that Prompto was well and truly on his own.

Dinner was still a long way off, but Prompto rummaged in the freezer anyway, looking to see if he had any Salisbury Steak TV dinners (his favorite) to celebrate with, since he didn’t have any cash left for food. His disappointment grew the more he rummaged. When he finally reached the back of the freezer and found only a couple ancient Hot Pockets, he slammed the thing closed in frustration. 

So instead he searched the house for change. He dug in the cushions, checked the top of the clothes dryer, and searched the top of every flat surface where things accumulated, but he only found a couple dimes, a nickel, and a handful of pennies. He glared at the palm-full of change in accusation.

Nope, no TV dinner for him. He sighed. He wasn’t going to cook anything, so ancient Hot Pockets it was. At least they were pizza-flavored.

He had a whole afternoon to waste, so he decided he might as well try to figure out some movie to put in. He searched through the house’s paltry collection of DVDs. But as it turned out, his parents had been gone so much of late that they really hadn’t been around to add to their movie collection, and Prompto had seen everything they had on hand so often that he was tired of all of them.

And the Netflix subscription had expired last week.

Prompto almost  _ almost  _ texted Noct to ask him to save him, and only barely talked himself out of it. Noct was busy; he’d already said. And it wasn’t Prompto’s place to disturb him in the middle of Royal Things. 

So Prompto curled up in the corner of the couch and occupied himself with some mindless Sudoku on his phone. After not very long, he stopped and tossed his phone on the other couch cushion. He decided that Sudoku really stank as a distraction when you were trying not to feel sorry for yourself.

His phone pinged. 

He scrambled for it and fumbled it when he raised it to his face to see who’d sent him a message. His parents? Noct? 

As it turned out, it was neither of those. It was from an unknown number. He thumbed his phone open to read it.

**Unknown [4:12pm] >> ** Hello, Prompto, this is Ignis. Noct asked me to text and find out if you happened to be home.

Ignis. Prompto had met Ignis, of course, but had never dreamed that any of Noct’s retainers would have reason to text  _ him. _

He thought a bit about how he should answer.

**Me [4:15pm] >> ** hi, yeah, i’m home. what’s up?

Then, on pins and needles, he waited for an answer and fretted. Why would Ignis need to contact him now? Had something happened? Was Noct okay? Was there something from school that he needed? 

Ignis’s reply was almost anti-climactic.

**Unknown [4:17pm] >> ** Nothing serious. Noctis needs your help regarding something related to one of your shared classes, and asked if I would drop by to get you.

Prompto squinted at the text. It was so incredibly unspecific. Which class? What thing related to the class? What? Maybe Noct was too busy with the Royal Stuff to properly inform Ignis. But that didn’t quite make sense. Ignis never did  _ anything _ without being fully informed. 

**Unknown [4:18pm] >> ** Expect me at your house in 20 minutes.

And that was all. Ignis didn’t even ask how to  _ get  _ to Prompto’s place, and that didn’t really bear thinking about, though Prompto couldn’t help a little bit of anxiety about how much information Noct’s retinue had gathered about him during his background check. (He pointedly didn’t think about the barcode on his wrist, not one bit.) 

Instead, Prompto spent the next 20 minutes pacing his floor. When the knock finally sounded on his front door, he jumped to answer it -- and there was Ignis, impeccable as ever in a white button-up and sweater vest, his hair impeccably combed across his forehead. 

Ignis nudged his glasses up his nose with a finger. Prompto of course noticed the way Ignis glanced past him into the house, and noticed the little wrinkle of his nose, as if something about the place displeased him. “Prompto,” he said.

“Hey, Ignis,” Prompto said, and he kind of hated how tired he sounded, but he couldn’t help it. This day had been disappointing all around. 

Ignis appeared to hesitate. “Is… Are you… alone?” he asked. 

Prompto shrugged. “Just par for the course,” he said. 

“Your parents aren’t here?” 

Prompto looked at Ignis’s (super-fancy, highly-polished) shoes and shook his head. “They thought they’d be back today, but…” he shrugged again. 

When he looked back up at Ignis’s face, Ignis’s brows were pinched together and his mouth seemed to be in a tight, angry line -- but Ignis’s expression relaxed as soon as their eyes met. “I have… a rather unusual request for you,” Ignis said. 

“Ooookay.” 

“Noctis asked me to retrieve a particular piece of work from the World Geography class that you share, but he thought you would be better able to identify it among his papers. Could you… come with me to his apartment and help me identify it for him? Then I can take it to him so he can complete it.”

Well… that was kind of weird. But… “Yeah, sure. Anything to help Noct.” Prompto looked down at his hoodie and sweats. “Do you think… should I… change?” 

Ignis’s mouth curled up at one corner. “Only if you wish it.” 

“I mean, nobody’s gonna see me like this but you, right?”

“Well, I can pretty much assure you that the king will not be there.” 

“Oh good, because that would be, like, embarrassing…” Prompto laughed, high and manic. But he grabbed his house key and phone, and followed Ignis out to his totally-crown-issued sedan. 

Ignis invited him to take the front passenger seat, and Prompto only gave in because if he sat in the back, it would look like Ignis was  _ his _ driver and that would just have been too weird, so he slumped into the front seat with his knees almost up to the dashboard and pulled his hoodie up over his head. 

“Come now, it’s not that bad,” Ignis said. 

“Yeah, well… you’re not the one in the cat hoodie,” Prompto mumbled into the fleece. 

“I can’t go anywhere until you’re buckled,” Ignis said.

That was enough to get Prompto to sit up and belt up. And then they drove to Noct’s apartment.

Prompto had been to Noct’s place just enough times to figure out which windows were Noct’s. It wouldn’t matter this time, because they’d be dark -- Noct was Doing Things right now, and Ignis was just bringing Prompto along to help find a thing in Noct’s satchel, which was at once totally cool and totally weird, but he wasn’t going to make a big deal of it, because hey, when the Crown Prince asks for your help, you  _ help, _ friend or not -- but as they approached, Prompto noticed lights on, and the shadows of figures against the windows, in the suite that he had  _ thought _ was Noct’s. 

Nah, couldn’t be. Maybe he was mistaken? He counted again, as Ignis approached the entrance to the parking garage, and… yeah, that should be it. But that couldn’t be right. 

“Hey, uh,” Prompto said, “I thought Noct wasn’t supposed to be home.”

He heard Ignis inhale through his teeth, and there was a flurry of movement that Prompto totally ignored -- Ignis wasn’t supposed to be texting while driving, but they were just about to pull into the parking garage, so maybe it was okay… Prompto wasn’t a driver yet, so he didn’t really know. But just as they were about to pull under the building, the lights in the suite that  _ should  _ be Noct’s all turned off. And that wasn’t suspicious at all. 

“You think everything’s okay up there?” he asked.

“I’ll have security check everything before we go up,” Ignis said, his voice tight. “Can never be too careful.” He pulled into a parking spot, and then sent a bundle of texts while Prompto politely ignored him, and oh man, Prompto hoped there wasn’t a break-in up there. Wouldn’t that be something, for them to walk in on a crime-in-progress in the Prince’s own apartment. 

A moment more of Ignis’s back-and-forth messages, and then he pocketed his phone and opened the car door. “Well,” he said, his voice crisp and not-at-all worried. “Everything’s clear. Shall we?”

Prompto gaped at him. “Just like that?” 

Ignis nodded and gave that tight, controlled smile that was totally fake, and Prompto totally didn’t believe him. But he couldn’t just say that to Ignis’s face. He was… well, he was Ignis. You just didn’t tell Ignis he was wrong. Or up to something.

So Prompto swallowed his misgivings and followed Ignis up to Noct’s apartment. Ignis unlocked the door and pushed it open to let Prompto step inside. They left their shoes at the door and made their now-familiar way through the hallway (past Noct’s open and messy room; Prompto ignored Ignis’s sigh) and into the dark apartment.

And Prompto’s heart leapt into his throat, because there was  _ movement _ in the dark. He didn’t have time to react, though, because as soon as he stepped out of the hallway the lights blinked on and familiar voices roared “Happy birthday!” at him. 

His first impulse was to climb Ignis like a wall in his race for the door. Instead, he froze, blinking, at what had to be the gaudiest decorations he’d ever seen. Noct’s apartment was festooned with streamers and balloons, and there was a tall, round, and perfectly-decorated cake in the shape of a chocobo in the center of Noct’s dining table. On either side of the table, Noctis and Gladio stood holding confetti poppers -- which they pulled as soon as Prompto noticed them, and the noise made him jump, and what were they doing there, and why was Prompto even here??

And why the decorations and cake? Why was he being showered in confetti?

Wait, had they said  _ “happy birthday”??  _ But how did they even know? Prompto certainly hadn’t said anything about it. And what about Noct’s “had things to do”? And why had Ignis said Noct needed help with homework? Prompto had so many questions, but something was blocking up his throat so he couldn’t get the words out of his mouth, which had fallen open.

He jumped out of his skin when a hand landed on his shoulder, and he jumped again when Ignis said, almost in his ear, “Let’s go further in, shall we?” The hand on his shoulder gently steered Prompto closer to the table. 

“I don’t understand,” Prompto finally managed. 

“Duh,” Noctis said. “It’s a birthday party!” 

“B-but I thought…” Prompto’s voice petered out on him.  _ I thought you were busy. I thought Ignis wanted me to help find some homework. I thought… nobody remembered. _ None of those things made it out of his mouth, because something else rose up in his throat instead.

“Blow out the candles, Blondie,” Gladio said. 

Sure enough, there were five tall candles poking out of the cake, gleaming like little stars. They blurred, and Prompto blinked, trying to get his eyes to focus. Then something dripped down his cheek, and he realized--

“He’s crying,” Noctis said in alarm. “Why’s he crying?”

“I think perhaps he’s a little overwhelmed,” Ignis said, and the hand on Prompto’s shoulder guided him to a chair. Prompto collapsed into it and gripped the edge of the table in front of him. He stared at the cake. He stared at the candles, with little balls of wax dripping down their sides now. He realized that there were a couple wrapped gifts behind the cake, and surely that was  _ wrong. _

“...have trouble getting him away?” Voices continued around Prompto, and it took a moment for him to tune into them again.

“None whatsoever,” Ignis said, sounding testy. “It seems he was home by himself.” 

“By hims-- You mean he was  _ alone?” _

“Indeed.”

“Looks like your plan was a real good idea, Princess.” 

Prompto opened his mouth to ask all his questions, but what came out instead was a loud sob. The voices around him grew alarmed then, and there was a lot of fussing and patting on his shoulders and back, and maybe someone (Noct?) gave him a hug, but really all he could do was stare at the chocobo cake smiling up at him and cry, because he hadn’t had a cake like this in… well, ever. The cakes his parents got from the grocery store’s bakery were never this awesome.

He did finally stop bawling at last, and met Noct’s concerned eyes. “You okay now?” Noctis asked.

Prompto nodded and managed a shaky smile. “I’m awesome,” he said, watery and thin.

“Better blow out those candles,” Gladio said, and he was right, because the stupid things were half the size they’d started at, and were dripping into the cake. 

So Prompto blew them out and Ignis divided it neatly into a lot more slices than they had people -- but it was way too big for them to eat all at once. Prompto got the biggest piece, with part of the chocobo’s beak. Then they all said “Happy birthday” again, and he couldn’t help the biggest grin. “Thanks, guys,” he said -- and he truly meant it.


End file.
